


A place to start from

by Beleriandings



Series: Just this once (everybody lives) [5]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:47:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26516941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beleriandings/pseuds/Beleriandings
Summary: (AU: Just this once)It was funny, Lois thought, how every introductory briefing session she’d been given since she began working for Torchwood had utterly turned her worldview on its head.
Relationships: Lois Habiba & Ianto Jones
Series: Just this once (everybody lives) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1826248
Comments: 12
Kudos: 43
Collections: Torchwood Fan Fests: Bingo Fest 2020





	A place to start from

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in the same AU as my fic [Just this once](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21618322/chapters/51549379), though it really doesn't require much knowledge of that verse beyond the fact that Ianto survives the events of Children of Earth, and Lois comes to work at Torchwood Three following that. (For those counting, though, this is set early in the time skip between chapters 24 and 25.)

It was funny, Lois thought, how every introductory briefing session she’d been given since she began working for Torchwood had utterly turned her worldview on its head. That just hadn’t been the case in any of her previous jobs.

This though… this was a lot to take in, even by their usual standards. She sat across from Ianto their little shared office in the temporary archive storage room and stared at him, fascinated and disturbed in equal measure as she stared down at the file in front of her, laid open on a stack of others. “So, let me get this straight. Those, uh, ghost… things… that were around for a while in mid-two thousand and seven were… cybermen? From a different universe? And Torchwood One was… letting them through a gap in… space and time… above London?”

“That’s about the size of it, yes.”

“Gosh” she said, because she couldn’t think of anything else to say. She put down the file back on the desk, reeling a little. “They said on the news back then, that it was a terrorist attack on Canary Wharf...” her brow furrowed, remembering.

“That was the cover story, yes.”

“I was in my last year at uni at the time.” She gave a nervous little laugh. “Pulled an all-nighter for my exam the next day, had a bit of a panic when the tube was closed...”

“Oh? Where did you study?”

“Kings” she said. “The streets were all closed around the Strand and the bridges...”

He nodded wearily. “Yes, they would’ve been.”

She looked back down at the file. There was a long list of names, typed small, multiple sheets paperclipped neatly together. “This is…”

“The dead” said Ianto shortly. “Yeah.”

Lois winced, her self-awareness catching up. These names would have been Ianto’s coworkers, his friends. “...Um. Sorry” she said, feeling guilty. “It’s just...” she gestured with the file, “weird, you know? To find out that all this stuff has been happening all the time, Torchwood and aliens and all of it, and I’ve just been… living a normal life. Everyone has. Except you lot, I suppose.”

He smiled gently. “That’s rather the point, isn’t it?”

She paused, a little struck by this. “I suppose it is” she said, closing the file on the table.

For a moment they sat in silence, Ianto shuffling through several more stacks of papers, expertly bringing order to them again as Lois snuck a look at him out of the corner of her eye. He didn’t seem too upset, but she didn’t really know how to tell yet.

“For what it’s worth” he said, taking her by surprise as he looked up at her, “or, um, the way I try to think about it… is that for all those that died there, there are far more that we did save. Or, that’s the idea, anyway.”

“…Yeah” she said slowly, smiling a little. Perhaps, she thought, he didn’t hold her initial reaction against her. “I’m sorry” she said again, just in case. “I suppose I’m just… very new at this.”

He gave her a look, and it occurred to Lois that Ianto wasn’t much older than she was. “You are” he agreed. He smiled a little wider, more warm and genuine this time. From what she gathered, that was the equivalent of beaming for most people. “Don’t worry. With what you did back in London, you’re off to a good start.”

“Oh” she said, relaxing slightly. “Thank you.”

Maybe, she thought, returning to the files on the desk in front of them, this wouldn’t be so hard after all.

**Author's Note:**

> There was chat about Lois and Ianto friendship and I remembered how much I enjoyed writing them in Just This Once, so I wrote this... it just happened to fit nicely into my "Torchwood One" bingo square, so that all worked out for the best :)))


End file.
